POTTSVILLE — Bishop McDevitt coach Mike Gaffey said that what happened in last year's PIAA Class 3A tournament was not the primary focus for his team entering Tuesday night's playoff game at Martz Hall.

But he admitted it wasn't totally forgotten.

After McDevitt knew it would be facing Central Catholic again in the second round, one of the Crusaders assistant coaches entered the team's first practice carrying a sign that said "82-55."

That was the final score when CCHS defeated McDevitt almost precisely a year ago in the same venue and in the same round of the PIAA tournament.

The Harrisburg-based program couldn't quite duplicate the margin of Central's 2014 win, but its 73-52 victory was nonetheless impressive and decisive.

St. Bonaventure recruit Milik Gantz, the one returning starter from either side playing in the rematch, scored 16 points, dished 10 assists and grabbed eight rebounds as the District 3 runners-up advanced to Friday's PIAA 3A quarterfinals against defending state champ Neumann-Goretti from the Philadelphia Catholic League.

Goretti, the team that eliminated CCHS last year, advanced with a 72-44 win over Manheim Central.

The Vikings, meanwhile, closed out a 17-11 season that didn't include a championship but did exceed the expectations of many who thought the program might nose dive after the graduation of five starters, including four-time all-stater Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman.

"I'm very proud of these guys," said Ben Pratt, one of four seniors who closed out their CCHS careers with a valiant effort. "We got pretty far. A lot of people wrote us off at the beginning of the year."

Pratt admitted CCHS ran into a very talented team that was highly motivated.

"They're really good," Pratt said. "They attacked the basket really well and got out in transition, which really helped them. You could tell that last year's loss really stuck in their minds. You could tell they really had an edge to them and really wanted to come out and beat us."

There were a few similarities to last year's game.

McDevitt started fast a year ago and had a 22-13 lead early in the second quarter before CCHS responded with a 33-6 run to take over the game.

This time, the Crusaders broke to a 17-5 late in the first quarter and again the Vikings rallied.

They went on a 12-2 run to cut McDevitt's lead to 19-17 with 5:27 left in the first half.

The difference from a year ago was that the Crusaders called a timeout and were able to regroup and reassert command.

McDevitt used an 8-0 burst to bump the lead back to 27-17 and led 32-24 at halftime.

"That's a team with the ability to go on some great runs and we weren't able to minimize them the way we needed to tonight," Vikings coach Dennis Csensits said. "I thought their athleticism forced us to do things faster than we wanted to offensively and shoot the ball quicker than we wanted. They took us out of our rhythm. Hats off to them because they played very well."

As much as McDevitt's defensive quickness bothered CCHS, the Crusaders' offensive efficiency hurt the Vikings even more.

McDevitt made 28 of 44 shots from the field (64 percent) and were seven of 10 from 3-point range.

While Gantz showed why he's a Division I recruit, the rest of the Crusaders weren't bad either.

James Williams had 17 points to go with 10 rebounds, Reggie Hopkins added 15 points on 5-for-7 shooting and Mark Ray cut to the basket with precision for 14.

"They're difficult to guard because it's hard to help on any one of their guys," Csensits said. "They can all shoot the basketball from the perimeter and they were all in pretty good rhythm tonight and shot it well."

CCHS might have felt it was in the game at intermission, but was quickly out of it after McDevitt stormed out of the locker room to score nine points in less than two minutes at the start of the third period.

McDevitt outscored the Vikings 23-6 in the third and used the final frame as showtime and preparation for Goretti.

"That run in the beginning of the third quarter was huge," Gaffey said. "It's the second round of states and we knew that they are well-coached and we weren't going to run away from them easily. We knew they had scouted us well. That's why we used three inbounds plays that we only used sparingly during the season. We felt we had to run some plays while also running up and down and playing crazy."

Gaffey said he had no doubt that Central, with a considerable amount of young talent, will be back in states next year.

Meanwhile, his team has set its sights set on pulling off what would be a major upset.

"My best friend coaches at Manheim Central, so we'll be prepared," Gaffey said. "We may try a few new wrinkles, but we feel like we're playing with house money and we'll give it a shot."